North Carolina Cotton: Planting Forecast Mostly Upbeat

Planting conditions remain pretty good. The soil temperature at Rocky Mount was 70.1 at 7 a.m. and had started to increase by 8 a.m. Notice the caution for May 14 and 15. This is because of low temperature predicted for the 15th. If you wish to plant during this period you would want to make sure you have seed with good cool germ and preferably use larger seeded varieties.

It would be advisable to monitor soil temperatures before initiating planting on the 15th. The prediction for the days following today range from 0-12%.

The table below is for Rocky Mount and based on the 10-day forecast. The first 7 days are based on the National Weather Service and the later days are based on predictions from weather.com. As spring weather forecasts can often differ across the state, we strongly encourage you to get a more local forecast that can be easily updated daily using the new NC State University Cotton Planting Conditions Calculator.

The calculator can be found on the Cotton website under the link “Calculators and Decision Aids” on the left side toolbar, or directly at the Cotton Planting Conditions Calculator page. We encourage growers to use and monitor the calculator twice daily to account for potential changes in weather forecasts for your region or farm. Simply click on your farm location on the map, and click “submit” for your local planting conditions forecast.